Men's basketball defeats Coppin State 82-47

University of Richmond basketball was dominant against the Coppin State University Eagles Wednesday, Dec. 5, winning 82-47.  

The Spiders took a commanding lead early in the game, starting out 9-13 with about 12 minutes left in the first half. Shooting was the story for the rest of the night as the Eagles shot 34 percent from the field but the Spiders made 50 percent. UR finished the night 13-28 from the 3-point line, but Coppin State hit only 2-16.  

Coppin State struggled to generate offense because of the Spiders’ continued strong defense. Richmond scored 18 points off of 15 Eagle turnovers along with 10 steals. 

Half of those steals were accumulated by Spider first-year Andre Gustavson, who played for 26 minutes in the game. He scored 12 points and had five steals, four rebounds and two assists, along with a game-leading +28 point differential while on the court. 

Fellow first-year Sal Koureissi also saw an increase in minutes, playing for 20. He was able to put up his first career double-digit game with 10 points. 

The Spiders were dominant in most facets of the game, especially in transition. At the beginning of the game, sophomore forward Nathan Cayo drew a foul on an attempted dunk in transition. Gustavson also drew a foul and made a layup on two separate transition buckets. UR finished the first half with a steal leading to a transition tip-in by redshirt first-year Bryce Schneider at the buzzer, giving him his first career points.

An early lead allowed UR head coach Chris Mooney to rest some of his starters, with redshirt sophomore Grant Golden and sophomore Jacob Gilyard playing only 17 and 19 minutes respectively. This allowed non-starters to get more involved, scoring 41 of Richmond’s 82 points on the night. Matt Grace, Schneider, Koureissi, Gustavson and Tomas Verbinskis all played double-digit minutes in addition to 9:40 from senior walk-on Keith Oddo.  

Despite a strong performance from the Spiders, first-year Jake Wojcik continued his struggles from last Saturday’s scoreless game, going 2-2 from the field and fouling out with about five minutes left.  

Mooney spoke on what adjustments he looks for from Wojcik in the future. 

“Really just playing," Mooney said. "Don’t worry about anything. Just concentrate on all these little details. Ya know, where you’re supposed to be on defense ... Sometimes you’re trying to get yourself out of a slump ... and you start doing things that are out of character.”  

The Spiders improve to a 4-5 record heading into a 10-day break. They will face Oral Roberts next on Saturday, Dec. 15 at the Robins Center.

Contact sports writer Noah Goldberg at noah.goldberg@richmond.edu